A Set-Top Box (STB) or Set-Top Unit (STU) is an information appliance device that may include a television tuner that receives an external signal and that extracts (“tunes”) television content, for display by a television or other display device, from the external signal. Some STBs may additionally include Digital Video Recording (DVR) capabilities. These STBs (referred to as 0DVR STBs herein) may include non-volatile storage, such as a disk drive or flash drive, that allows the DVR STB to buffer (record) television content. Buffering of television content for later playback and viewing may enable a user to record selected television content. Additionally, automatically buffering television content that is being watched by the may user enable the DVR STB to offer on-demand pausing and rewinding of the television content.
Recoding of video content, such as television content, can be storage intensive. Some STBs, to reduce cost and/or power consumption, may not include a storage device, and may thus be unable to offer record, pause, or rewind functionality (i.e., these STBs may be non-DVR STBs). Additionally, DVR STBs, because of the finite size of the storage device, may have a limited ability to provide record, pause, or rewind functionality.